It is a curious thing that we take the end of one year and the beginning of a new year as the time to assess the past and make resolutions for the future. It’s as if the world stops to take account of the human heart and our purpose in this world.
In the confines of time we consider the timeless, often intangible realities, like purpose and passion, as we seek to live a more meaningful existence. We also use the start of a new year to set measurable goals and initiate or resurrect healthier habits in hopes of a better life.
The rest of the year, especially in business, we measure successes in quarters, courses completed, goals met, money made. We often define ourselves by our function and decide success by our bottom line.
As a certified coach, I’ve learned the value of setting goals and accountability. I’m pretty certain that I would not have written my first book without being accountable to my productivity coach. I still meet with my coach weekly, as he helps me to define my business model and market myself as motivational speaker and coach.
I’m also working on decluttering the house, and finally setting up an office in my home that really works for me (think color coded files, sticky notes and pretty artwork on the walls).
As important as these goals are to me personally and professionally, I am certain I couldn’t get out of bed without recognizing life holds a greater purpose and meaning than just the world we live in. I have to believe that telling our story helps others cope with their own struggles and helps them to know they are loved by God – no matter what.
For me, even decluttering the house has to serve a bigger purpose or I’ll ignore it forever. But time and again, I see it does. The more I simplify my stuff and my routines, the easier it is to focus on meaningful tasks and the people I love.
At the year’s end, towards new beginnings, many people focus on philanthropic pursuits. Spiritual and human goals of compassion towards oneself and others emerge from our subconscious yearnings to our conscious intentions. We seek a greater purpose. Why?
I believe one of the reasons we seek to live with greater purpose is because God placed a desire for eternity into every human heart. I love this scripture from Ecclesiastes:
“I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” Ecclesiastes 3:10-11
I remember when the celebration of a new year drastically changed for me. My daughter Johanna was 18 months old and she’d had six brain surgeries. But we still didn’t have a clear diagnosis of the large tumor in her brain. The tumor was resected when she was three months old and we were told, that although there wasn’t a clear pathology, the doctors assured us it wouldn’t return.
That long New Year’s Eve, as I waited for the ball to drop in 1998, I also waited for the proverbial next shoe to drop, as I worried over some neurological signs of trouble in my baby’s brain.
When she started vomiting and shaking on that New Year’s Day, we rushed her to the emergency room. A CT scan showed three bleeds in her brain, a regrowth of the prior tumor and a clear diagnosis of multiple cavernous angiomas. We realized then that this diagnosis wasn’t something our daughter would outgrow in time. Her life and ours would never be the same.
That was the year I really began to understand the truth of this scripture from Ecclesiastes. Experiencing the celebration of a new year at the same time as grappling with a chronic and life-threatening diagnosis forced me to keep my focus on God’s eternal timeframe, not mine.
I had a choice to make that New Year’s Day, almost 20 years ago, one that I’ve made every year since. I chose to receive that gift of eternity God placed in all our hearts and to trust that life holds beauty and purpose in God’s time. Embracing that gift focuses my heart and mind towards eternity and helps me to spend my time concerned with the timeless gifts of faith, love and life.
Our struggle is not so much for finding purpose-filled intentions as a new year begins, but rather keeping those intentions foremost in our minds and hearts as we set our goals for the year ahead. If we allow God’s timeless purposes to guide us all the year through, we will see the beauty in all things and we can change the world.
I wish you all a new year filled with timeless beauty and Godly purpose.
Eileen Benthal is a writer, speaker and wellness coach with a B.A. in Theology from Franciscan University. She is the author of Breathing Underwater: A Caregiver’s Journey of Hope.
Eileen and her husband Steve live in Jamesport and have four young adult children. Their youngest, Johanna, is a teenager with special needs.
Eileen can be reached at CareforaCaregiver.com.
